


The Fire in Leaf and Grass

by apollos



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, NejiTen Month 2019, One Shot Collection
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-02 14:41:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19443520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apollos/pseuds/apollos
Summary: Oneshots written for NejiTen Month 2019.





	1. Playing Myself (Day 1 / "Gender Bend")

**Author's Note:**

> yeah i'm gonna try and write all the prompts! hopefully one a day! but we'll see how that goes. 
> 
> the title comes from a lovely poem called "living" by denise levertov. the prompts are here:
> 
> up first is the first prompt, "gender bend." i decided to take this very liberally and write this as a body swap instead, as i'm not really fond of the gender bend trope. i felt it starting to get out of hand, though, and i didn't want to write an epic of a one shot and/or start writing anything particularly porny on the first day. this first chapter's title comes from "crazy in love" by beyonce (lol, but i took it from a remix!) i doubt i will ever revisit this concept again, but i think it has a lot of potential with neji and tenten :~)

The man smiles through a mouth of blood, seemingly keeping his body up by sheer force of will as he forces his fingers into a few final hand signs. He catches Tenten's eyes; she shivers, her spine attempting to remove itself from her body. Then the full blow of Lee's kick to the stomach catches up to him and he crumples backwards, a spent tissue, a dead leaf, on the forest floor.

"I wonder what that could have been," Neji says, breaking the silence as they stare at the fallen ninja. They hurdle around the corpse, as if it might reveal its secrets yet.

"Probably nothing," Gai decides. He rolls the body over and checks the pulse. "A dead man's last words. He _is_ dead. Let us dispose of him before the sun sets."

"Yes, Gai-sensei!" Lee declares, and they move quickly.

* * *

While they sleep that night, beneath a starry sky with the heady sound of cicada in the trees, Neji and Tenten's souls float upward. Pale spirits, they are, barely discernible; they would likely be invisible to any awake being, thinking it instead a trick of the eyes, a mirage. For just a few moments, Neji and Tenten's bodies empty; the spirits brush up against one another as they transfer; and then they settle into their new owners, sighing like a dog who has finally found a place to rest and sleep for the night.

* * *

Something is very wrong. At first, Neji thinks he must have lost a limb, or something of the sort; his weight feels different, shifts incorrectly as he stands up. He feels half a foot shorter, all his movements wrong. He instinctively tries to activate his Byakugan and get a better read on the situation, and that's when he realizes: he is not in his body. He looks down at his hands, and they are a woman's hands, but more than that, they are not the fine, gentle hands of a Hyuga, woman or man; they are rough and scratched and callused, strong and capable, dirt under the short fingernails—

They are Tenten's hands.

Neji finds it easier to scream when inhabiting a body that is not his.

"I don't know how we're going to fix this," Gai says, crossing his arms and frowning at his students. It took very little to convince him as he knows his students well. "We're going to have to go back to Konoha."

"We cannot," Neji-as-Tenten says, frowning. Tenten-as-Neji looks at him (her?), amazed to see how that trademarked Neji frown appears much the same on her own face. She bristles, too, when she sees his (her?) hair strung messily about the forehead.

"Tenten—Neji, I mean," Gai says, sighing and pinching his forehead. "You are both a liability! You do not know each other's bodies, each other's jutsu. There's just no way we could work together as a team. Much less your minds!"

"I'm fine," Tenten offers, though she definitely does not feel fine. She keeps tripping over Neji's clothes and limbs, unaccustomed to the height. She has also tied Neji's long hair into a bun atop her (his?) head, unable to stand the feeling of it down her back. "It's a simple mission. We can complete it."

Gai shakes his head.

"Tenten is right." The sentiment sounds strange, coming out of Tenten's own voice, even if it does match Neji's intonation more closely. "It _is_ a simple mission. Lee and Gai-sensei could complete it, while Tenten and I return to Konoha."

"I still don't like that," Gai says, his frown even more pronounced. "We're in enemy territory, and it's like you're academy students again. Youthful, yes," he says, and Neji and Tenten both sigh in each other's bodies when his voice takes on its preaching quality, "and perhaps a wonderful bonding experience, but dangerous—"

"We'll be fine," Tenten interrupts. She steps forward and concentrates on not tripping, in an attempt to be reassuring. "We've dealt with worse. Neji is still adept at taijutsu and I keep my aim. If we _are_ attacked, it won't be by the mission targets. Just petty criminals."

"I agree," Neji says. He goes to cross his arms over his chest, then drops them quickly. His face—Tenten's face—reddens, just slightly, only noticeable by the proper owner of that body. Neji's cursed pale skin, though, blushes more readily. The particular constraints and awkwardness of each other's exchanged bodies start to become, unfortunately, awfully, clearer.

"Keep in touch," Gai instructs Tenten—at first Tenten's body, and then Tenten in Neji's body, since communications largely falls to her. "Send messages. I want to know when you return to Konoha."

"Yes, Sensei."

"I'm sorry!" Lee interjects. He has been hanging behind, clearly confused and upset. "I don't—I cannot handle this," he says. "Please get better soon," he sniffs, finally.

Tenten laughs. "We're not _ill_ , Lee," she says. "Just mixed up."

* * *

Mixed up indeed. The first day does not go smoothly. They say their goodbyes to Gai and Lee and themselves take off into the trees in the opposite direction; after a few branches, Tenten, in Neji's body, estimates the jump incorrectly. She starts to fall, until Neji, in Tenten's body, comes to save her. "I've been saved by myself," she announces, but Neji doesn't find it funny.

They hop back into the branches and take a break. Tenten walks Neji's body up and down, trying to figure out the proper footing. "How are you so good at this?" she asks backwards. In her body, Neji remains graceful.

"I was your height once," is the answer.

"Oh." Tenten turns Neji's body around and glares at her own body—at him. "I'm not short, for a woman, you know," she says.

"You're shorter than me." Tenten watches as her own lips quirk up in Neji's little smile, as distinct as his frown.

"Don't play childish games," Tenten scolds. She pumps chakra to Neji's feet and leap up; she's gotten her balance back, at least to a workable extent.

"This whole _thing_ is a childish game," Neji responds.

Tenten cannot disagree.

* * *

When they stop to make camp for the night, Neji discovers a problem.

The bandages on his—Tenten's—chest have become unwound.

Though he has certainly adapted better to Tenten's body than to his, at least in terms of physicality, part of that resulted from the quick forming of a mental block. This is a body that he does know well, or at least knows its capabilities well. He must, as the teammate of the owner of this body. He knows Tenten's body well, and he had resolved, long before this, to never think of it as beyond the physical representation of and vessel for Tenten's mind and spirit.

Except now it's the vessel for _his_ mind and spirit. He is occupying her body. It's perverse; it's pornographic. So, after waking up everybody else with his morning screams, he had reached deep inside and found the will to strengthen that mental block and acknowledge nothing except this body's capability to carry him home and put things right.

Except now the bandages have come undone. They have become undone because while he might be adept at navigating Tenten's body through this corporeal world, he is _not_ used to having wider hips nor breasts, and had not adjusted his balance correctly. The bandages have come undone, and he must, finally, face the physical reality of his new situation.

He approaches his own body as it crouches down, tending to a small fire. "Tenten?" he asks himself, shaking his head at how strange it feels.

"Yeah?" Tenten looks up, and he finds her wide-eyed curious expression easily displayed on his own features, even with their lack of pupils.

"I have a problem."

Tenten lets out a long exhale of breath and stands up. Neji cringes when she wipes her hands on his pants. (His hands on his pants? It's too much.) "What is it?"

"Your…wrappings. Here." Neji gestures, very broadly and generally, to the chest of the body he now occupies. "They have come loose."

"So rewrap them?"

Neji mirrors her exhale of breath again. "I do not wish to infringe upon you in such a way."

Tenten puts her hands around to her back, stretching. A pose Neji has seen her do while she thinks. "I suppose," she says. "Come, sit."

Neji does as she says, guiding Tenten's body to sit by the fire. He closes his eyes and unbuttons the first few buttons on the shirt Tenten normally wears on missions, then tugs it over his head. He holds it above, an offering. Tenten takes it.

He feels more exposed than he normally does, shirtless. It must be the awareness that this is not _proper_ for a woman as a man. Either way, the skin he occupies feels sensitive, prickling to the cold night air on the side not warmed by the fire. When Tenten crouches his own body behind him and takes the wrapping over the breasts of the body Neji has found himself it, Neji now finds that his skin responds to the touch. With _pleasure_. He bites on a lip to keep quiet.

Tenten uses Neji's hands quickly, and it amazes him how soft his own hands seem, how smooth. He knows, of course, that his style of fighting doesn't lead to swollen knuckles and scraped skin like hers does, but the different has never struck him until he's been touched by himself while inside a body that is not his. _Pornographic, perverse_ , his brain reminds him, feeling this body's unfortunate reactions. His closed eyes and lack of ability to see through them with the Byakugan only heightens this. It cannot be the same for her, who has done this to herself so many times—and perhaps it is for that reason that she acts so quickly, and without any gentleness, despite the softness of the hands.

He wonders if this body would always respond to this touch in such a way.

"This is too strange," Neji says when his shirt is back on, the bandages tightened.

"It is," Tenten agrees. She folds Neji's body down on the other side of the fire.

* * *

Hours pass and sleep eludes Tenten. She cannot settle comfortably in somebody else's body. Every sound in the forest keeps her awake. She cannot figure out how to activate the Byakugan, no matter how much Neji tries to help her from her own body, which means they lack a proper scouting of the area they have chosen to rest.

Across the fire, in her body, Neji is still. He sleeps like he does normally: on his back, his hands folded on top of his stomach, chest rising up and down. But when Tenten rearranges herself and cannot stop herself from harrumphing when she flops, annoyed, she hears her own voice say, "You're still awake?"

"Yeah. I can't sleep."

"I can't, either."

Neji sits Tenten's body up, and Tenten follows suit. "Maybe we should move on," she says. "Cover more ground."

Neji shakes his head. "It's too risky, without the Byakugan. Have you tried anymore?"

"No," Tenten responds. She touches her fingers to the sensitive skin beside her—Neji's—eyelids. She shivers with the unthought intimacy of that gesture. "Truthfully, Neji. Even if I could activate it, I don't think I would really want to."

"Why not?" Neji raises her own eyebrows at her.

"I'm not sure. It just feels so—secret, I guess. Private."

Neji nods, a few, slow movements of Tenten's head. "Moreso than the bandages," he says.

"In a different way." Tenten looks down at her own lap. Neji's body is not unfamiliar to her, but is unfamiliar in this way, in the first person. She doesn't like it, these weird, quick snatches of sights and feelings. She would prefer to be looking at this body from an outsider's perspective, relying upon it to keep her safe, rather than piloting it herself. To admire its strength. "We are more than our bodies," she tells Neji, after a pause.

"Yes," Neji says softly. "Did you not think that, before?"

"No," Tenten responds immediately. She keeps her eyes away from Neji's.

"You, with the fortune telling?"

"Oh, that's just a hobby. In my heart—in my soul, I guess—I didn't _really_ believe it. How could I?"

"I always have." Tenten can hear in her own voice the cadence she uses when she's comforting somebody, when she's being earnest. "Even before."

Now Tenten touches her fingers to the forehead protector, under which she knows lies another band, and then the cursed seal. Unwrapping that would be more of an affront to their privacy than any of the things they wear under their clothes, she thinks. "If I did activate the Byakugan," she says, struck by the idea, "do you think this seal would recognize that I am not actually you, and—"

Tenten hears Neji move her body to sit beside her, their thighs touching lightly. "I think you might be right," he says. "We shouldn't try anymore."

"Would it kill me, or you?" Tenten raises her eyes to Neji's, then, and even though they are reversed, she cannot see herself. In her own eyes, she only sees Neji.

"I don't wish to find out."

After that, beside one another and in each other's company, they are both able to find some semblance of sleep.

* * *

The next night is the final night before they will return to Konoha, they estimate. After their first few stumbling steps in each other's bodies, their training allows them to adjust to the new situation and they are able to make excellent time. Without the aid of the Byakugan, however, they still play it safe.

This evening, Neji proposes the topic of conversation. "Gai said this might be a _bonding_ exercise."

Tenten, finishing a messenger scroll telling Gai that they're still alright, laughs.

"I find that I do not feel any closer to you, though," Neji continues. "I have learned nothing I did not already know."

"Really?" Tenten props her—his—eyebrows, and it strikes Neji that this is something they both do, an expression they began to share in their plenty time together.

Neji clears his throat. "I knew you were strong and capable," he says, "so feeling how strong you are has not changed my perception of you."

"Thank you, Neji," Tenten says. She smiles; on Neji's face, her wide smile looks so out-of-place that Neji laughs, too.

* * *

They reach Konoha by midmorning. At first, nobody recognizes anything in their behavior as odd or wrong; when they smirk at each other with their shared private joke, it doesn't register as unusual for any Konoha ninja, so often have Neji and Tenten exchanged their secret looks and smiles.

When they explain their predicament to Tsunade she seems at first skeptical, then brings a sensor ninja who confirms it. "I have never seen this version of this jutsu before," Tsunade muses after she dismisses that ninja. Neji and Tenten stand in front of her, though on the opposite sides they usually take. "Orochimaru has something similar, but it's not a complete switch."

"There has to be a way to reverse it," Tenten insists, in Neji's subtly urgent voice. "For nothing else, we think that if I were to activate his Byakugan, it could kill us both."

"This is outside my expertise as a medical ninja, I'm afraid," Tsunade says. She folds her hands on her desk and leans over. "We're going to have to call in a spiritual specialist. It might be a few days. I know that probably brings the pair of you no comfort."

"It does not," Neji agrees.

"I am taking you both off active duty," Tsunade continues. She speaks absently, distracted by the predicament in front of her. "Until we can resolve this situation. I feel, also, that in order to reduce confusion, it might be best for you to spend time with each other only. We don't want any mishaps." She smiles, a small thing, almost as if she had not meant for Neji and Tenten to see it.

* * *

What follows next: an entire week of awkward bed and shower situations; red faces and anxious laugher; a day of silence following an incident, followed by a day of fervent apology; a realization, at the end, confirming Neji's statement, that sharing each other's skin has done nothing to strengthen their bond; except maybe it has, because on the final night, Tenten says to Neji, strategically timed before bed once again, "Have you ever thought about if you would have sex with yourself?"

Neji blinks Tenten's eyes at her.

"I'm just asking," Tenten says. She wishes that she could tap into some of Neji's composure, that that was a physical quality of his, but it is not, and she can feel the fire on her face.

Neji waits a few moments, scenarios flashing through his head, Tenten's heart beating hard inside his chest. "I would not want to," he says, finally.

"Me neither," Tenten immediately agrees. "And I would never want to experience this jutsu again. I'm looking forward to getting back in my body."

"But?"

"But…"

* * *

The spiritualist diagnoses the jutsu as an extremely forbidden technique and performs a ceremony to reverse it. Once again, while asleep under the influence of a special medicine, their spirits pass over one another's bodies, brushing, the things souls are made of briefly touching, exchanging the nebulous ether that is the soul's to exchange; when the spiritualist smiles, Tsunade asks him why; the spiritualist's response is only to smile further. In secret, in disguise, in the soul: sometimes, the things unspoken, the things most apparent.

Being in their own bodies feels, of course, immediately and irrevocably right. The week and some days they spent in each other's already a body memory they would like to lose. Yet when they stand in front of the tower, preparing to depart, when they should be sick to their stomachs of the sight of each other's faces and the sound of each other's voices, they both reach for one another, both flushing, though now in their own ways, in their own bodies.

"But I enjoyed our time together," Neji finishes.

Tenten nods. "And if we already know each other's bodies so well…"

* * *

What changes?

(Nothing changes, really. Not as far as the souls are concerned. What was exchanged—things that were already there.)


	2. Sins of the Father (Day 2 / "Cursed")

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Generic fantasy world AU. Tenten is a tavern-hopping mercenary. A mysterious noble man requires her and her partner's services.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> figured that other people would tackle neji's curse as is and thought i might present a nice little fun au to forget about the paaaaaaain of our canon instead :')

"Did you hear about the new man in town?" Lee swoops in on Tenten as soon as she descends the tavern's steps, leading her to their usual table.

"No," Tenten says. She takes a seat and Lee flags down the waitress. "What's so special about him?"

"He's a noble." Lee whispers the word _noble_ like a swear word, leaning in with his round eyes. "They don't know from where. Somewhere far away."

"What's he doing here, then?" Tenten laughs at the idea of a noble in this grimy little town, walking through the muck-filled streets, getting the hems of his fancy robes dirty.

Lee shrugs. "People are saying he's been _disgraced_."

"Gossip." Tenten waves her hand. "Well, I guess we'll see how long he stays then, huh?"

Tenten herself never stays in one place for very long, though this grimy little town and squat tavern make up something of a home base. She and Lee are travelling mercenaries, both grown up in the same orphanage, now lost to the wind after the death of their master. They've gotten themselves a reputation, and if people want their services, they know where to look.

Which is how the new noble man walks into the tavern that day.

Tenten tightens her jaw so it will not drop upon seeing the man. He is exactly what she had imagined a foreign noble to look like: tall, with pale skin and pale eyes and pale robes, but long, dark hair, worn loosely down his back. The overall effect has been dimmed by the constant drizzle and the ankle-deep muck, as Tenten had predicted it would be, but he still seems to _glow_. The only thing that stands out is the rather plain band of leather he wears around his head. Tenten has never seen a noble without some sort of crown, or at least a diadem.

"That's him," Lee supplies needlessly.

The man walks—no, he _sweeps_ gracefully—across the tavern and to the bartender. Kankuro raises his eyebrows, the lines of his makeup stretching even farther than normal.

"I am looking for somebody," the man explains.

"Tenten and Lee?" Kankuro asks. He throws an amused glance towards their table.

"Yes." The man's eyebrows drag downward. "How did you know?"

"Just did." Kankuro shrugs and gestures towards the two. "They're over there. Be careful."

They're bad at looking tough; both Lee and Tenten bite back smiles at the idea that somebody has to be careful when inquiring into their services.

"Excuse me," the man says. They fully laugh at his politeness, his noble accent. He frowns.

"What do you want?" Tenten pulls a kunai from the pouch on her thigh and swirls it around her finger, figuring she might as well ham it up. So little opportunities for laughter, she'll take them when they come.

"I have a problem," the man says. Tenten lets him speak, not as rude to interrupt with an _obviously_. "I am looking ahead to a long journey. On this journey, I will need protection. And—" he looks between Tenten and Lee, and then at the knife on Tenten's finger, continuing its rotation. "I would like to learn how to fight, as well."

"We're not teachers."

"Tenten." Lee looks at her.

"We have a price," Tenten continues. "How long of a journey are we talking about?"

"I do not know. Indefinite." The man reaches into the breast pocket of his robes and pulls out a coin purse. Up close, Tenten can see the small, intricate details on the robes that looked to be just a pure white from afar; the coin purse is no different, a very pale green, but clearly embroidered with precision and care. He snaps it open and reveals the glittering, golden contents. "As you can see, money is not a problem. I will pay for all expenses in addition to whatever final payment you shall require."

"Alright." Tenten sticks the knife down in the table, ignoring Kankuro's miffed shout from the bar. "Lee, you want this job?"

Lee nods.

"We'll set out in the morning. Assuming you know where to start with your journey?"

"Of course," the man says, taken aback. "I know you are Tenten and Rock Lee, and my name is—"

"Don't say that here!" Tenten looks around the tavern. It's the usual mix, Kankuro's siblings keeping the place running, his sister's boyfriend chain-smoking in the back with his two friends, and Tenten trusts this place, but sometimes walls can shift. "Do you need to travel by land or sea?"

"Land."

"Then meet us at the Sand Sculpture, dawn's first light."

The man sighs and shifts, rolling his eyes slightly. "Is there anything I need to bring?"

"Just yourself. And your money." Tenten smiles.

* * *

The next morning the man introduces himself as Neji, though he does not lend his family name. Tenten supposes that makes sense; it would reveal his identity in full and he has no reason to trust them. They work as far as his gold goes. He explains that there is a powerful sorceress he needs to seek out, living in a town in the north, who may be able to lift an affliction of his. He says it is not contagious, nor a danger to their journey, but one that must be cured. Tenten and Lee shrug; they've heard worse.

Though Tenten and Lee are perfectly fine making camp in the woods, the man insists they stay at taverns and inns, clearly used to fine things. Tenten admits that it's nice to have a soak in a bath every night, a hot meal. It works well enough until they come to a close at a day in a place where Tenten and Lee have a bounty on their heads.

"Our work isn't always _legal_ ," Tenten whispers to Neji as they stay in the forest outside the town, planning what they must do as the sun sets. "We don't control who hires us. We just work."

"We try not to take the immoral jobs!" Lee interjects. "But sometimes we are tricked."

"That is most unfortunate." Neji taps a finger to his chin.

"I think you should also start keeping a low profile," Tenten says. "Your family must be looking for you."

"Perhaps."

"Look, we can't help you if you keep being so damn _mysterious_." Tenten places two hands behind her head, stretching, as if she can expel her annoyance from her body in that way.

"Are you not being paid?" Neji glances at her.

"Hey," Lee interjects. "I will not tolerate abuse to Tenten."

"Sorry, sorry." Neji smiles, then, and Tenten narrows her eyes when she sees the intention behind his smile.

"It's not like that," she says, bitterly. "We grew up together. I resent your assumptions, and I wish to see no more of them, if we are to continue this partnership."

"Fine." Neji hoists the bag he carries, one of exquisite but still durable leather, on his shoulder. "If we cannot stay in town, where must we stay?"

"Not here. Too close to town." Lee says, looking at Tenten. She nods and he takes off, running quickly but quietly.

"Where is he going?" Neji asks, looking after him.

"To scout a place. He's very good at it."

Tenten expects the time alone with Neji to be awkward; she certainly feels awkward herself, more skeptical and annoyed than amused by his noble sensibilities after the initial quaintness wore off. He surprises her when he relaxes his posture, softens his face. Just slightly, but Tenten can pick up on it. She had to have learned how to read people in her line of work.

"I apologize for my behavior and my insinuations," Neji begins. He averts his eyes and keeps his shoulders drawn; this is hard for him. "You must understand, I never wanted to be in the position I am in now. My hand was forced. Old habits are hard to be rid of."

Tenten considers his words, staring at him unabashedly. Since they started travelling, he has shed his outer, fine robe, wearing only a pair of loose white pants and a utilitarian black tunic. He walks with naturally light feet and has a way of doing everything with a grace that seems more an innate trait of his than some learned noble affectation. With their lack of pupils his eyes are hard to read, but sometimes Tenten thinks he looks sad, weary.

"You said you wanted to learn how to fight, right?" Tenten asks, smiling.

"Yes?" Neji knits his eyebrows.

"Well, it's a long journey. We might have time for that yet."

"I would appreciate it."

They say nothing else to one another until Lee returns with the location of their camp, but Tenten doesn't find it awkward at all.

* * *

In the days—weeks, even—that follow, Neji makes a good student. His estimated travelling time drastically increases with the decision to avoid staying the night in places or showing Neji's face, but the pay continues. Lee and Tenten are able to eat well, paying for goods off of travelling merchants with Neji's gold, hunting for game in the forest. Neji surprises Lee and Tenten by proving adept in hunting, producing a small, silver-handled gun.

"Hunting is a noble man's sport," he says by explanation. Tenten resists the urge to steal the gun and study it; with the expense of gunpowder, only the rich can afford to fight with them. While she does just fine with her weapons, she can't resist the glint of the metal in the sun as Neji fires a bullet through a rabbit's skull.

Neji takes to combat just as well, though Lee and Tenten must push him to let loose his inhibitions and give himself to the skill. They spar in front of him to demonstrate, and soon he's sparring against Lee or Tenten in his own way, letting himself be bloodied.

It brings a smile to Tenten's face.

* * *

A gentle hand shaking Tenten's shoulder wakes her. She bolts up, grabbing at the kunai she keeps beneath her bedroll. At first she mistakes Neji's eyes for the moon.

"I should have known better," he whispers, nodding down at her kunai.

"What is it?" Tenten hisses, keeping her voice low. "Are we under attack?"

"No, no." Neji shakes his head, strands of his hair falling over his shoulders, onto Tenten's. "It's nothing. I just wanted to talk to you."

"In the middle of the night?"

"It's nearly morning,"

"Alright, then." Tenten pockets the kunai and slips out of her bedroll, following Neji. She yawns and stretches, expecting to lecture him for waking her for no reason, but words fail her when they arrive at their destination. They made by a stream tonight and he walks her farther down the shoreline, to an area of the stream that drops slightly, producing a small waterfall. Here, with a full moon in the sky, Tenten sees everything illuminated, shimmering. Rocks provide a steady, stable border for their stream, long grass sways in a gentle nighttime dance, fish swim in the clear water, stars hang like the light of some big, faraway city, the type of place Tenten could never allow herself to dream of. The type of place from which Neji must hail.

"It's beautiful," Tenten says. "I mean, of course I knew it was beautiful, and I'm sure you've not seen much of the countryside, but—"

"It's a nice night." Neji walks in front of her and smiles. It's a small, sad smile.

Tenten's about to open his mouth and ask him to explain himself, but he shushes her and lifts his hands to the tie of the band around his forehead. The motion takes only a few seconds, but Tenten feels it as an eternity, watching his hand come away with the band like a dead fish in a fisherman's hand. Inert and unimportant when no longer attached to him. On Neji's bare forehead is a seal, glimmering green in the moonlight, as intricate as his robes.

"I have been cursed," Neji says. He cranes his neck to the side. Tenten reaches for a hand, trying to communicate to him that he does not need to hide himself to her, not here, not under these stars, away from the cities. "This is the curse. It is a curse given to me because my father did a very foolish thing."

"Your father?" Tenten asks, squeezing his hand. "Not you?"

Neji shakes his head. The changing shine of the seal catches Tenten's eyes, bewitches her. If that is the curse, to make her think him beautiful, then so be it. "My house—my family—has a policy. The main branch of the family carries the blood line and are untouchable. The other branch—my branch—though outwardly look no different, exist only to serve that branch. If the service is denied, then this happens." Neji touches the fingertips of his free hand to the seal upon his head. "They are punished. And what is the crueler punishment—to yourself be cursed, or your _child_ be cursed, so that their life is doomed to be empty and fruitless?"

"Empty and fruitless?" Anger mounts in Tenten, but first she needs all the information. "What does that mean?"

"It means that if I ever betray the main branch, I will be tortured. Not killed—tortured, excruciatingly, for the rest of my life. I may never take a wife or bear child; they will both wither and die, sapped of their souls. My role will be diminished from fellow nobility to servant. The only reason I have been able to embark on this journey is by secret allowance of my cousin, the heiress, who believes such practices cruel."

"This is _immensely_ cruel!" The ring of Tenten's voice brings a bird flying from a tree, its caw an echo of his and her own misery. "I cannot believe—from what barbarous country do you even hail?"

Neji smiles again at that. "Konoha," he says. "The seat of the state."

Tenten loosens Neji's hands so that she may bring them to her mouth, aghast.

"Everything there is not perfect," Neji continues. He walks a few paces and seats himself on a large rock. Tenten follows him, taking perch beside him. "I believe my cousin may have power to change it one day, but she hasn't the power to undo the curse. Only the sorceress. My cousin risked her life, getting that information to me. I appreciate it." He swallows; Tenten watches the ball of his throat descend then rise, an oar in the water, measuring all the hurt he must carry inside him. "I want to choose to one day sacrifice my life for her, if the situation arises. Not be forced into it."

"Freedom," Tenten murmurs.

"Freedom," Neji agrees. "In you and Lee, I see that freedom. I did not think I would come on this journey and meet such a pair. I thought I would be accompanied by awful, silent types."

"Are you saying we talk a lot?" Tenten prods him in the shoulder. He covers her hand there.

"I would not have it any other way," he says, softly.

Tenten leans her cheek on his hand, thinking. There is so much she could tell him in this moment: share the hardships of the orphanage; the death of Gai, the man who freed Lee and Tenten from a lifetime of destitution and trained them into their current capable selves; her foolish dreams, though she always denied them, of one day living in that city. That Neji could leave that life behind and join them if he wished, or they could join him in a quest to undo this system. More information be damned—she trusts Neji. It's something in the way he gave her the gun the day before, let her shoot their dinner. In the way he never tempers herself while sparring, the way that even sometimes Lee does. The way that he was so quick to shed those noble trainings in pursuit of what he wants. In his pulse, of which Tenten is acutely aware, she feels that he trusts her, too, and that is what the gentle beating is trying to communicate.

"I will be by your side," Tenten says finally, speaking slowly. "Not just because you pay me. Because—well, because since I was a little girl, I've always believed in doing right. I've not had many chances to do so, but." She closes her eyes.

"Yes," Neji agrees. He shifts, edging Tenten off him gently with a final squeeze of her hand, taking the leather band back to his forehead. "I would like that."

"You won't always be cursed."

They share a smile, a small, newborn thing of the forest, walking on its wobbling legs, knowing one day it will grow, large, into something ferocious and fearsome, but enjoying for now all the comforts of a beginning.


	3. A Bitter to Your Sweet (Day 3 / "Blood, Sweat and Tears")

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pre-canon, a sparring match goes wrong when Neji wounds Tenten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> prompt is bts's song "blood sweat and tears" and title comes from that, since i couldn't think of anything else.

"Okay, we're going to practice Neji's rotations, now." Gai wipes his brow of sweat after a kicking match with Lee. "Get in position Tenten, Neji."

Neji nods once and brings his leg out, extending his arms, activating his eyes. Tenten smiles at him as she sets up about forty feet away, biting her thumbs to release a scroll. She distracts him by pretending to have trouble breaking skin, and then a barrage of kunai and shuriken burst without any warning. Neji's feet slip as he moves into position and starts spinning. He curses himself in his head, hating the lack of perfection, the initial wobbliness of the rotation. In his head Lee, Tenten and Gai are all laughing at him, pointing out the flaws in his form, saying, _this is why the branch must always submit to the main—_

"Neji!" Gai's booming voice breaks his thoughts. Neji ceases the rotations immediately, detesting the hot shame he feels on the back of his neck.

The heat only solidifies when he sees why he's been asked to stop: in his imperfect rotation, the weapons flew erratically, and a few have found Tenten. Her face is scraped, her clothes now ragged, but the worst is a kunai, lodged in her shoulder. Almost to the hilt. Blood leaks, shines.

"It's fine, really," she's saying to Gai. In the confusion Neji's Byakugan deactivated on its own, and now his vision is tunneling into that kunai in her shoulder. The red ring around the blade. A target on a tree.

"You can't move your arm," Gai says. When he lifts Tenten's arm himself, she winces, tears springing to her eyes.

"Tenten!" Lee rushes to her too, hovering around her other side.

"Just—please! A little space." Tenten waves her good hand and then smiles meekly.

"Training is over," Gai announces, standing up. "We're going to the hospital. _All_ of us." He says the last part to Neji.

Neji follows behind the main three. Basic field medical knowledge tells them not to try removing the kunai in Tenten's skin themselves, lest she begin to bleed out. She's in pain; Neji can tell by the way she walks, unsteadily despite no injuries to her legs. Something hit her back and tore her shirt nearly in half, down her spine, the two separate pieces flapping like wings. Or like the split skin of a cadaver.

 _It's her fault_ , Neji thinks. _She should have dodged._

 _It's your fault. You were taken by surprise. In this fight, even though you injured her,_ she _bested_ you _._

_This would be a victory on the battlefield._

_This is not a battlefield. This is training. You slipped. If that kunai had hit lower, she could have died._

_She's just my teammate._

_She's your teammate._

As they encroach upon the hospital Neji realizes Lee has been crying, sniffling audibly. Before they enter Gai puts a hand on his shoulder. "Go home, Lee," he says. "You don't need to see this. She'll be okay."

"I will." Tenten smiles at Lee.

Lee nods and turns to depart, then spins around on his heels once more, sending a look at Neji. "Were you _trying_ to hurt her?" he asks.

"Of course not," Neji huffs.

"Training accidents happen. In the busy springtime of your youth, such mistakes are frequent! That's why I'm here." Gai addresses this to Lee, placing both hands on his shoulders, allowing Lee's face to relax from an expression of hatred to one just of concern. Once more he and Gai nod at each other, and then Lee leaves.

A small wait inside the hospital. Neji excuses himself under the guise of going to the bathroom, but all he does there is stare at himself in the mirror. Plain face, the line of his mouth set, and the two little voices inside his head, unable to reach agreement. _Your fault, her fault._ Back and forth.

They're taking Tenten into a room when he returns. He keeps his pace steady as he catches up with Tenten and Gai. A nurse leads them to an examining room. Tenten sits on the bed, Gai stands beside her, and Neji stands in a corner, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"A training accident," the nurse says, smiling. "It happens."

"Yes, that's what I've told my students," Gai says.

"Please tell me exactly how it happened."

Tenten goes to speak, but Gai interrupts her. "Neji," he says, looking at him sternly. That hot shame flares once more on the back of Neji's neck.

"I was practicing the Hyuuga _kaiten_ ," Neji says, curling his fingers into his palms inside his pockets. "As she is a weapons user, we frequently practice this together. Something went wrong when she released her weapons against the _kaiten_ , resulting in her injury."

"Very well," the nurse says, writing this down on a clipboard. "Well, this is a simple enough procedure. It seems to have missed anything major. We'll take the kunai out, patch you up, and send you home. No training for a week. You'll come back after that week, and we'll see how it's healed up. Sound good?"

"Yeah," Tenten says. She goes to lay down but stops herself, cringing at the movement in her shoulder.

The nurse departs, seeking a doctor, and Neji looks between Tenten and Gai. They're both staring at him as if they expect something. "May I leave?" he asks.

"Yes," Gai says. Something in the slow way he says the word tells Neji to expect a lecture. "Be at training tomorrow."

That night Neji does nothing but practice his rotation, replaying the events of the day over and over. A slip of the foot. A mental distraction. A sustained rotation, but an unstable one. Instead of a clear arc of reflection, one Tenten has seen hundreds of times, a seemingly random pattern as the blades hit his chakra. Around one in the morning Neji finally feels satisfied, that he has fixed his form and solved the case, and brings his aching body back into the compound for a bath and then bed.

_You feel your muscles? How they hurt so well? You know Tenten loves that feeling, too. You've taken it away from her._

_Just for a week._

_Think of how you would feel—_

In the bath Neji sinks underneath, until his thoughts drift out into the water submerging his ears, lost.

The expected lecture comes when Neji arrives at the training grounds the next morning. Gai seems to have set Lee on forearm training, whacking his arms against a straw dummy. He nods at Neji instead of the usual greeting, then leads him out of earshot of Lee when a stern hand on his shoulder. Neji resists the urge to shake it off.

"You need to apologize," Gai declares.

"Why? It was an accident."

Gai releases Neji's shoulder and sighs. "Because, my student, it is the polite thing to do. I will not have impoliteness between my genin. As a team, you need to be close. To trust one another. You have broken that trust."

"It was an accident," Neji repeats. His voice lilts, but just slightly. "Injuries happen."

"I saw your _kaiten_. I'm sure you went home and practiced it for hours, right? To find out why it failed?" Gai's serious eyes bore into Neji's own, compelling him to agree. Despite anything else. Neji does not want to disappoint Gai. "Accidents do happen. I'm not mad. But Tenten is hurting, and she will hurt more if you don't own up to your mistakes. You know where she lives. After this, I want you to go and apologize to her. That is an instruction."

"Yes, Sensei," Neji says.

"You and Lee are going to practice defense, today." Gai clasps Neji on the shoulder again, smiling. "Let our mistakes teach us moving forward!"

Gai is not mad; he does not put Lee and Neji through any particularly grueling training as punishment; he explains that accidents happen but that you must own your mistakes, he explains that you must be nice to one another when you place your life in each other's hands. It is undoubtedly foreign to Neji. He thinks of the way such an incident would have been handled in the Hyuuga clan: certainly not as many words, as many smiles and nods and shoulder touches. Blank faces and heavy silence. That sense of shame, drawing sweat out of all Neji's pores, and the urge to purify thoughts through physical activity.

Neji wonders if he should bring flowers, but quickly decides against it. She is not seriously ill; it would be ridiculous; more than that, Tenten is not the type of girl who would want flowers accompanying such an apology.

Tenten lives in a cheap shinobi's apartment block, an ugly multistoried gray building jutting up into the skyline. An old man is sweeping outside, looking as worn down as the building he cares for. Perhaps they influence one another. He takes the stairs to the fifth floor, then finds apartment number 57, Tenten's home. He knocks.

She opens the door. She's wearing a flowy, sleeves shirt, but Neji can see the large mass of bandages blooming onto her open arm. Like a lotus flower, he thinks, strangely enough. "Hi," she says.

"Hello."

They wait a few seconds, and then Tenten jerks her head. "Are you going to come in?"

Neji walks inside. It's a small apartment, a miniscule sitting area and kitchen, an empty doorframe leading to a bedroom. Tenten has strung beads across it. She shares a bathroom with the floor's other occupants.

"I have tea," she says. "If you want some."

"Yes, thank you." Neji does not intend to stay long, but he still has his manners. He watches as Tenten pours some tea from an idle kettle on the stovetop into a glass. Plain, but clean. She hands it to Neji and they both sit, facing each other at Tenten's small table.

"I want to apologize," Neji starts before she can say anything else. "My imperfection caused grievous injury to you."

" _Grievous_ ," Tenten says, smiling into her teacup. She places it down and looks at Neji, allowing her smile to grow wider, tilting her head. "It's okay, Neji. Accidents happen."

"Yes."

"I forgive you."

Neji sips his tea.

"And thank you, for apologizing to me." She lowers her voice, her eyes. "I appreciate it."

"It was the proper thing to do," Neji says.

He shocks himself by believing it.


	4. Unstoppable Force, Immovable Object (Day 4 / "Ancient Beings")

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Demon hunters AU. Neji and Tenten have a conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning for mention of a character having a miscarriage through a violent situation

"It's not as pretty, but iron is your standard anti-supernatural metal." Tenten turns the dagger over in her hand. "This is the cheap model. You can buy a prettier one but, well. trust me. It's not worth it."

"You're some salesman," the woman scoffs. She reaches into her coat and pulls out a credit card. No wallet, Tenten notes.

When she goes to give the card to her, Tenten says, "Cash only."

"What is this, the fifties?" The woman pockets the card once again and then pulls out a crumpled mess of cash from her bra. "I'll take ten."

Tenten finishes the sale, annoyed. She refrains from the character judgements her training forced her into, from her desire to take one of these daggers and stick it through the woman's chest. It's good money and Tenten has a feeling that, with this attitude, some vampire or wendigo will sink their teeth into her neck by the end of the week.

After the woman leaves Tenten walks to close down shop. It's early, but with this purchase she's secured a decent enough profit margin for the day, and she wants a long, hot bath accompanied by a nice big mug of sleepy time tea. As soon as she goes to flip the sign on the door, Neji knocks on the glass. Tenten sighs and swings it open for him.

"What now?" she asks. She finishes changing the sign over to _closed_ and shuts the door.

Neji drifts to the herb aisle, touching dried leaves and twigs with just the very tip of his fingers. "I just wanted to see you," he says. His voice is soft, low. It chews through Tenten's resolve like acid through steel.

"Going out on a big hunt?"

"I just got back from one." Neji stops in the herb aisle and turns to face her. She sees a large gash, closed with staples, running down the left length of his face. "Werewolf."

"Ah," Tenten says, nodding her head with as much sarcasm as she can muster.

"We took down an alpha," he continues, stepping towards her.

"It's not going to impress me," Tenten says. She grabs ahold of his wrist when he goes to touch her face.

"I know." Neji closes his eyes and leans into his hand. "Lee saw the worst of it."

"Is he alright?" Panic flares in Tenten's chest.

"Ah, yes." Neji's eyes open sleepily. Short eyelashes, very fine, but the eyes they guard still so beautiful Tenten wants to throw herself into them, again and again. Will throw herself into again and again.

They stand like that for a few moments. Tenten balls her fists into her hands. She can hear the little lucky cat figurine she keeps on the counter, ticking odd seconds away. If she were to close her eyes—

"We miss you out in the field," Neji says, breaking the paradise of silence. "I miss you."

Tenten could say, _then quit, run the shop with me,_ but it's a conversation they've had too many times, in too many places, in too many moods, and she doesn't want to beat out the dust and lay it all out again like the so-called magic carpet for sale behind her counter. It's about as useless, anyway. "You came here for this?"

"No," Neji says. He drops her hand and grabs her around the waist, pulling him. Her cheek hits against his chest, the solid wall of muscle. "I still love you."

"I know. But you can't keep doing this."

"Tenten."

"Neji."

An unstoppable force, an immovable object, and Tenten doesn't know which is which anymore.

In the past, in the field, it would have been easy. Her on the offense, him on the defense—unstoppable force, immovable object. Partnered, fierce. Sure, there was Lee and Gai, supporting them, their soldiers on the front line, and Tenten loved them—loves them—but not like Neji. Not with the strength to let lava flow into water and make new lands. Not in the dangerous way, the way that became a priority above all else, the way that gave her the nightmares and the premonitions. Not in that way.

"I wish you would just quit." Tenten sighs and steps away. They will have this conversation again, of course they will. They always do. She's a fool to think otherwise. Just have it—get it over with and enjoy what comes next. "I can't sleep at night when I know you're out there. Neji, you're getting older—just _retire_."

Neji does not grant her the kindness of responding to that, keeping his head and face calm. "I know you're not happy here," he says, gesturing to the breadth of the store.

It's not a big store, small, but it's well-stocked and Tenten makes her own weapons and potions. She lives above the place in a small but beautiful two-room flat. She has her loyal customs, she makes enough to keep herself afloat, and it's easy enough to disguise on the tax records as a Wiccan-Pagan outlet novelty shop.

"I'm only not happy when you're out," Tenten says, and it's true. Neji has his side of the bed. Drawers in her dresser. A toothbrush on her sink. A seat at her table. But he does not live there—not on the records, not in reality.

"What life is there for me here, Tenten?" Neji asks, his voice hardening. Tenten bites down on her lip and turns her back to him, pretending to reorganize a rack of iron-tipped spears. "Inert, actionless? When I know they're still out there?"

"Who, the Beasts?" Tenten whips around. "We don't even know if they're _real_. Nobody's _ever_ seen them. You're chasing a dream, Neji, putting your life in danger—for _nothing_."

"Not for nothing." Neji draws his eyebrows together. The motion, of course, draws Tenten's eyes to the band around his head.

"Hinata will let you go," Tenten says, softly. "She's told me as much myself."

"I can't do that to her."

"So you do it to me?" Tenten asks. The question burns her eyes. "What am I to you, Neji? A warm meal, a warm body?"

"Tenten." Neji steps forward again, but Tenten evades his grasp. She walks to her cash register and punches the tray out angrily, knowing she won't be able to count but wanting to feel the copper of pennies and smooth paper of dollar bills beneath her finger. This is her world, now, and she needs to remind herself. "Tenten, please, don't condescend me like that."

"You condescend me every goddamn time you walk in that door!"

"When I come _home_?" Neji scoffs, looking at the door as if it is the accuser in this situation.

"Lee wants you to quit, too!" Tenten's screaming now, only so she doesn't start crying, and because all of it is _true_ and he just won't _listen_. "I see them all, every day, and they always say to me, _oh, we've been talking to Neji, but he just won't quit_! They ask me when we're getting married, and you know what I say?" Tenten slaps her hands down on the counter. "I laugh. I play it off like a joke. _Oh, we're not the marrying type._ But damn it, Neji, I _want_ to marry you, I want the whole fucking thing. You know that."

"I want that too." Neji's asked her to marry her before. There's a ring in her bedside drawer, inset with a beautiful and rare crystal instead of a diamond, one that's said to have protective properties, in a band of silver instead of gold.

"So long as every time you walk out that door, I don't know if you'll be coming back alive," Tenten says, pushing the words through clamped teeth, "or _at all_ , I will never marry you, Neji Hyuuga."

She lets him walk around and hold her then, lets him soak up the tears she can no longer fight. She grabs fistfuls of his hair, his shirt, and she holds on tight. If she could, she would hold him so tight he would never go, but she's tried it all before and it's never worked. Maybe one day, she tells herself every time. Maybe one day. Then the immediate hatred—at herself, for being foolish, not him, for being stubbornly righteous.

Three years ago, she was just as stubborn and just as righteous. Just as entrenched. Just as happy to be on the field, to be fighting for what was _just_. But Tenten is a foolish girl as much as a righteous warrior. They gambled; with their lives, with others' lives, with the lives of their unborn child, lost after Tenten was swiped in the stomach by a shapeshifting panther's claws. An unborn child they had not even known existed until the doctors told her, days later. After that, and the frequent sight of Neji in hospital beds, with tubes down his nose and I.V.s in his throat—over thirty they are, now, and he will not be young and strong forever—his _father_ —her _parents_ —a life you are born into, not one you choose.

Tenten thinks she's chosen to get out of it, but here she stands in the store where she sells the tools to ill-fated hunters day in and day out, so many faces she knows she'll never see again. Held by the one face she knows she always wants to see again, the one that she knows, too, in the part of her that has the dreams and the visions, will leave her one day, charged through this solid body so beloved with stakes of demonic metal.

But always: _maybe_ —


	5. Hello Kitty and Friends (Day 5 / "Scars/Tattoos")

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Modern AU. Neji and Tenten go to the same gym.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i had a hard time thinking of something for today, mostly because i had too many ideas. i got really attached to this au, though, so i miiiight write a sequel for one of the other days. i don't know if i want to keep the prompts separate yet, though. i definitely have more ideas for this 'verse, but nothing that would fit into a neat oneshot plot yet.
> 
> also i know the title is dumb but i couldn't think of anything better ok

A woman comes into his gym every Monday, Thursday and Friday. She wears a pink sports bra, black leggings, and her hair in twin buns. The latter seems impractical to Neji, but they somehow never come loose when she spars. She drinks only water, in a thermos decorated with cute characters. (Google tells Neji they're part of the Sanrio line. Hanabi likes them, too, and she gives Neji a glare of bemused disbelief when he asks her for more information the next time he visits his uncle's house.)

"You're obsessed," Naruto says to him one Thursday when they're toweling the sweat off themselves after a match, getting ready to go home. Neji and Tenten's schedules schedules overlap for just a few moments on Thursdays; on Monday and Friday they share the gym.

"I am not," Neji says. He notes that today she's wearing a pair of green socks with her usual white sneakers. (They're called _Nike Air Max 1_ s. She only wears them to the gym, since you spar barefoot. They are still beat up. Neji has read that they are considered fashionable for a certain crowd.)

"Why don't you just like, challenge her to a match?" Naruto makes a karate chop motion in the air, even though this is not a karate school. "You know?"

"Because I'm ranked higher than her," Neji says. He throws his towel over his shoulder and piles his hair on top of his head.

"Offer to teach her. _You know_." Naruto makes a jerking motion with his hand.

"You immature imbecile." Neji pushes his shoulder. Keeping his eyes on the woman, he reels when she turns over her shoulder, seeing them tussle.

She catches his eye, smiles and winks.

(Neji _definitely_ does not count down the hours until Friday's session. He _definitely_ does not type in 'what does it mean when girl smiles and winks at you' into Google. He _definitely_ does not type out a text to Hinata for help before deleting it.)

He has not just observed her _physically_ , though he has certainly admired her form—in the art and outside it—out of the corner of his eye for the past few weeks. He has also, of course, observed her interactions with others. She seems smart, always quick and eager to learn from Gai or Lee. She's funny in a dry way and a little star twinkles in her eye whenever she finds something amusing. What Neji likes most about her, though, is that she seems headstrong and determined. She pushes herself. She allows herself to sweat and, even sometimes, to bleed.

This quality of her comes in blessedly handy when, on Friday, she departs from her usual punching bag and intercepts Neji between the check-in desk and the men's bathroom. Ostensibly, she's refilling her Sanrio water bottle, but her " _Hey_ " is a little too perfectly timed.

Neji stops as if a lifeguard had whistled at him for running. "Hello," he says back.

"I've seen you around," Tenten says. The little star flashes in her eyes. "I like your tattoos." She nods at his arms.

Neji looks down at his arms as if he had forgotten they were there and she had reminded him of their existence and use. That happens, sometimes, when people comment on his tattoos—they really do become a part of you, so much that it feels strange to have them mentioned. He has his forearms sleeved, both in the Japanese style. On the right, a ferocious tiger in a forest; on the left, a tranquil koi in the water. Vanity led him to keep his upper arms, his biceps, bare, but every once in a while he thinks about filling them out. He has a yin-yang symbol on the back of his neck and a detailed black-and-gray caged bird on the left side of his chest, but in the clothes he wears to the gym, only the very top of the cage can be seen. He still bares the intricate linework with pride. He paid top dollar for these tattoos, at one of the best shops in their area of the country.

"Thanks," Neji says. He turns his arms over, seeing the artwork with new eyes. "My family hates them."

"Really?" Tenten stands up and screws the cap back on her water bottle.

Neji blinks. He had not meant to say that. "They're traditional. My family." He waves his hand, dismissing the statement.

"I can see you're not." She drags her eyes from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet, then back up. It feels more like she's sizing him up than checking him out. It also feels like she's checking him out, which makes heat crawl up his neck to his face. "How long have you been coming here?"

"A few years. I started with Lee, you know, before he started working here."

"You must be good then," Tenten says, raising her eyebrows. "I mean, I know you're good. I've seen you spar."

"You, too," Neji says. He leans against the wall. He has little time to have this conversation—five minutes until his scheduled lesson with Gai, who never tolerates lateness. Neji _himself_ cannot tolerate lateness. He also cannot tear himself away from her, his heart beating out towards this woman. "I didn't catch your name?"

"Tenten," she says. "Tenten St. Xavier, if you want the full name, but I hate it, so."

"Then Tenten it is." He extends his hand, delighting in the strong way she shakes it. "I'm Neji. Neji Hyuuga."

" _Hyuuga_?" Tenten's eyes widen. "Do you know Hinata?"

"My cousin?" Neji cocks his head.

"Yeah, her. Wow. No wonder your family hates those." She touches his arm, the one with the tiger. "They kick you out of the fortune?"

"Something like that." Neji smiles. "How do you know Hinata?"

"Oh, I went to school with her. Lee, too. That's how I started coming here." Tenten grins widely. She's missing the bottom half of one of her front teeth, something Neji hadn't noticed before. Not a clean cut; it looks chipped. Neji likes to imagine it happened in a fight. Up close, too, he can see a large scar on her midsection, running vertically, above the waist band of her leggings and out the top of her bra—heart surgery? He can't be sure. All he knows is he want to find out more, but Tenten is talking again. "You're going to be late for Gai."

"Yeah." Neji stutters and chuckles, then immediately wonders why the hell he did that. "Look—do you want to get drinks sometimes? Or coffee, if you don't drink."

"Oh, I drink." Tenten winks at him.

They make plans to meet at Akmichi's, for dinner _and_ drinks.

Neji dresses out as quickly as he can, unwinding his hair as he walks onto the sparring mat, but he still makes it to the lesson a few minutes late. When he steps onto the sparring mat, however, Gai doesn't give him the usual lecture about the importance of timeliness and that youth is a fleeting springtime or whatever; instead, he gives Neji an amused, knowing look and a thumbs up. Neji rolls his eyes, and all the way to the back of his head when Naruto starts snickering beside him.

("Naruto's the only one who ever _really_ beat me," Neji says to Tenten the next night over drinks, making her laugh with the story. "Since then, we've been close. Too close. I think he wants to marry into the family."

"What does it take to marry into the Hyuuga, anyway?" Tenten swirls the small straw around in her vodka cherry soda, more vodka than cherry soda.

"Some more dates and you just might find out."

"A marriage proposal already?"

"A proposal _to_ a marriage proposal."

"I think that's called a promise ring."

The twinkle in her eyes, the clink of ice in her glass; the eventual sound of the sharpened blade of her prized sword collection; these lovely, high bell sounds, Neji will forever to come to associate with Tenten, with happiness and with fun.)


	6. Acceptance (Day 6 / "Broken")

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tenten, after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy belated birthday neji

Halcyon days of summer. Spring, summer, fall, winter—every season, with their individual beauties and their individual fruits. Fragrant flowers and old women crouching, gardening, with their wide-brimmed hats and wide-brimmed smiles. A sun that rose early and set late and the insects providing the lilting chorus on the training fields. Golden gloaming, golden leaves, golden apples, golden hours. A chill that settled deep in your bones only to make tea and a blanket around the shoulders even more comfortable.

(He, rejoicing at the newborn birds and their immature song; he, with his hair tied off his head and little scowl, so intolerant of the heat; he, mixing herbs for a spiced drink with his thin fingers; he, bundled up, tilting his chin up, receiving the communion of a first snow—)

Tenten likes the sunflowers she sometimes sees when she visits Neji's grave. She knows they must be from Hinata and Himawari, though she has never run into them at the cemetery. She only visits in the empty little hours of the night.

There are sunflowers today, looking just a bit wilted. She straightens them on the grave and then crouches beside it, laying her legs out in front of her. She talks to him while she looks at the damp grass laid out in front of her, soaked with moonlight and a summer rain. She tells Neji about the shop—still no business—about Lee and Metal—still exuberant—about Gai—still with Kakashi—about anything and everything she can think of. When she sees the sun starting to rise in the distant, feels the earthworms start to wake from their rest, she presses a kiss to two of her fingers and then touches them to the name on the stone.

"Happy birthday," she says.

She dashes away, but she still cannot beat the tears.

Lee calls on her today, waking her from a thin sleep. She pulls the ratty old blanket further around her shoulders and opens the door. She expects Metal, too, but he's not there, nor Gai. Just Lee, his face blank, which might as well be a frown. Tenten walks away from the door, trusting him to close it.

"How are you?" he asks.

"Alright," Tenten responds. She sits down on the couch again.

"It's—"

"I know what day it is. Where's Metal?"

Lee sighs. "With Gai-sensei, of course." He touches the back of his head. "Gai wants to go to dinner. Just you, me and him. No Metal, no Kakashi."

"No," Tenten says immediately.

Lee sits on the couch beside her.

"Hinata will probably come over later," Tenten continues. This is useless information; this is how it has happened for the last twelve years. "I should be home."

"I already told him." Lee stretches and relaxes into the couch.

Tenten forgets, sometimes, how old they have become. Proper adults, settled into the frames of their bodies, constructed and maintained by years in their field. Bodies, strong and worn. She remembers Neji in—as much as she resents it— _the springtime of his youth_. Snatched right on the precipice of a bright adult summer; a languorous older autumn; a delicious elderly fall. Merely a babe. Merely older than Boruto, Himawari, Metal, and all of her friend's other children, babies in their own right, too eager to grow up, to speed through.

Tenten has always felt older than she should.

Lee leaves after a little while longer. He doesn't make excuses, nor offer an elaborate goodbye; he departs much in the same way he came. Tenten expects a more boisterous meeting from Gai, a tearful visit with Hinata. Hanabi and Hiashi only see her on the big milestones, which will become fewer and farther in between with the passage of the years.

Tenten allows herself today. This.

Tenten allows herself this. They weren't together. Not in that way. They were together only in that they spent very little time apart. Not just for practicality, as members of one of Konoha's most employed ninja team, but by choice. Simple and easy in a world at times so difficult; a thing that required no thought. If she had thought—if she had more time and space—if she had foresight—but they _were_ together, united, and with a few more years, or maybe after the war, they could have settled into each other like everybody else, could have lived a quiet life, could have raised children. It would have been natural; it would have been putting one foot in front of another, walking in the line of your life, living through the calendar of your year. Moments after moments, stacked on top of each other. A lifetime's home.

(He in the living room of her small apartment, leaving some flowers in a vase when he thinks she's not looking; he, eating frozen fruit with her on a rooftop; he, telling her that he can pick out the perfect pumpkin on sight alone and proceeding to activate his Byakugan; he, presenting her with a twin pair of gloves, one for work and one for fashion, wrapped in the careful traditional paper labored over with those thin fingers and that fine brow—)


End file.
